Shilpa Yarlagadda, Founder and CEO of Shiffon Co.

For my latest interview for The Tiny CEO, I spoke with Shilpa Yarlagadda, the founder and CEO of Shiffon Co., a fine jewelry company that supports female entrepreneurs…like me!

What is Shiffon?

Shiffon Co. is a fine jewelry company, and it's also a social enterprise. We use 50% of the profits from our signature product--our Duet Pinky Ring--to fund female founders. Our mission is about uplifting women. It's part non-profit, part for-profit.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of my job is getting to meet incredible women. I always love being inspired. I'm always trying to improve myself as a human being and do better. And that has led me to so many incredible people, including your mother, and even you. It's so exciting to see what you're doing, and that you care about doing good through your work. I love connecting with people who also are very mission-driven, which I think is something my company has allowed me to find: More like-minded individuals.

What is the hardest part of your job?

I think the hardest part of my job is running my own company. It's different than in school when you're trying to get an A on a test, or in an internship where you’re told exactly what you're supposed to do. When you have to build your own structure and metrics of success, and try so many different things until you get there, it’s hard to figure everything out. There's much more experimentation.

Eventually, you get to a point where you build your own rituals, routines, and processes. But in the early stage, it can sometimes be tricky not knowing exactly what's going to work. You have to get used to improving what you're doing and being very self-reflective in the process. Once you learn these skills as a founder, it becomes a normal process. 

What is the story of the Duet Pinky Ring?

Shiffon’s signature pinky ring represents a “pinky promise” to pay it forward to support women. The pinky ring is in the shape of a spiral to represent spiraling women upwards, and the big diamond and the little diamond represent one woman supporting another. In that vein, we donate 50% of our profits to female founders or companies that empower women. That little ring has funded more than 13 companies, and it's been worn by so many incredible people I admire.

Why did you decide to make a tennis pinky ring?

I think it started because I met so many women who educated me on how historic tennis was for the women's movement. Also, one of the companies Shiffon funded, Break the Love, is a tennis company. Break the Love’s founder, Trisha Goyal, had educated me a lot on tennis, and I thought that it was inspiring that tennis was the first sport to have equal prize money for women.

As I started to learn about what Venus Williams and Billie Jean King had done for the sport and for women in general, I thought--jewelry is an amazing way to share stories. It’s a symbol that can remind people of how to create meaning in their own lives. I was also inspired by the tennis bracelet, which got its name when Chris Evert dropped her diamond bracelet on the court at the US Open. The design had diamonds all around the bracelet. I really wanted to commemorate that history, that story. I thought of making our regular duet pinky ring with diamonds all around it. It’s super beautiful, and right now it’s also funding women-led companies in sports. It’s called the 1972 Tennis Pinky Ring, in honor of the passing of Title IX, the landmark legislation that prohibited gender-based discrimination in schools and federally funded programs and paved the way for women in sports.

What advice do you have for young girls like me?

You should just be very proud of yourself. You should also be very true to yourself. Even if you're different, embracing who you are and enjoying your journey are the most important things. I think you’re already doing such a good job of that!

What could my business, Beads for Good, and I do to get funded by Shiffon?

So much of what we do at Shiffon is mentoring young women like you. I would love to learn more about your businesses and your long-term goals. I just think it's so cool that you have started a business at a young age, I really support you in that. I would like to know what your dreams are for your company. You will learn so many great skills from building your current business, and that will set you apart in life. With social media, you can put your business on the map in a much bigger way. I would be curious about how many bracelets you can make, especially with all of the other things in your life. Your jewelry is special, but also it’s accessible and affordable, and that will help get really incredible people to wear it.

But now I’m curious to ask you questions! What do you want to be when you grow up? How old are you now?

I’m 10 years old, and I’m turning 11 in March. While I have a lot of interests, one of my favorite hobbies is reading books, and I’m not sure how to incorporate that into my job.

Reading books is a great thing, no matter what job you do in life. Bill Gates is always reading interesting books, and people like Oprah Winfrey have book clubs. Learning from the amazing people who have put pen to paper is so important.  One day you could write your own book and have your own book club. What's your favorite book?

Right now my favorite book is probably The Hawthorne Legacy, which is the second book in The Inheritance Games series.

And what is a book that you want to read, that you haven't read yet?

I haven't read the diary of Anne Frank, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

That's a very good book. It’s incredible. Thank you for interviewing me. I’m excited to support what you're doing. I will see if there is anyone I can think of who is planning to go to Taylor Swift’s concerts, if you could reach out to them and send them bracelets. We should brainstorm, but I just feel like from looking at your designs, it’s so perfect for that!